Last Week’s Week’s Workouts {3/3-3/9}

Wow, it’s March. Where did January and February go? March means that I’m just over a month from my early season “A” race, the Gator Half! (I guess I should register, eh?)

Here’s how I did for the first full week in March:

Monday: Long run, 15K

This has become our standard Monday night routine, and I’m slowly picking up my speed. Last week, I was 1:15.59. This week, I finished in 1:15.30. My goal next week (aka tonight) is to go 1:15.00. We’ll see if I can do it!

Tuesday: Bikram Yoga, 90 minutes

Normally Tuesdays are swim days, but apparently the Boy Scouts were using the pool we normally swim at, so there would only be one lane open for the public. So, we called off team swim, and I went to a yoga class instead. Holy HEAT! I’ve done Bikram before, but this was by far the most uncomfortable I’ve ever been. By the time we got to the seated poses, I was barely able to push myself to actually do them. I had lost the mental game, and could not bring myself to a) step out into the cooler lobby before class was over or b) just sit in child’s pose, so I just did the last few moves pretty poorly. During Shavasana, I was squirming because I was so uncomfortable- I just wanted him to open the door to let in some cool air! I was so relieved when it was over- and pretty much ran out of the class when we got up.

Wednesday: Trainer Ride, 60 minutes

I forced myself to get on the trainer and rode to a Netflix documentary about Tonya Harding. I remember that drama from when I was a kid (um, crazy to think that was OVER 20 years ago!! How am I that OLD?) and it was interesting to hear more of Tonya’s story. I’m still not convinced that she didn’t have anything to do with it, but she sure is one tough cookie.

Thursday: Swim 2800 yards

Pull night! ‘Nuf said.

Friday: 9K run

It was a beautiful night for a run- temps were in the high fifties- so Courtney and I set out from her place planning to start at like 5:08/km and gradually increase our speed. The first km beeped at 5:06. Welp, I guess we’re dropping from there instead! We consistently dropped for the first half of the run, and then I really picked it up for the second half. I had a nice descend except for that darn last kilometer, where I needed to slow for traffic and there was an uphill. I also think I had pushed a wee bit too hard on the previous two km (averaging 4:40 yipes), so my last km was a 4:48, which put my average at 4:53. I’ll take it!

Saturday: 65 km ride with 3 x 20 minutes intervals

Normally we ride long on Saturday, but we opted to get in some speed, which was a nice change. Felipe led the line as usual, and we averaged 36.4k/hour on the first one, 38.9k/hour on the second (hello tail wind!) and 34.3k/hour on the last one. In MPH, that’s about 22ish on the first one, 24ish on the second, and 21ish on the third.

Yes, I was cold enough for arm warmers and tall socks in the low sixties.

Sunday: Brick, 60km ride, 7km run

This was a pretty standard 60km ride for us. Felipe led, then Jess, me, Courtney, and Heather. My friend John was in town and joined us for the ride, but he’s super speedy and did his own thing. The ride really didn’t have anything special to report.

Prior to the ride, Felipe said we were going to either do a 7km run or a 10km run. I’m glad we only did the 7km, because I was beat by the end! We did our usual loop, and my plan was to try to not take it out too fast- maybe start at like a 5:05 and then continue to accelerate if I felt good. Felipe’s philosophy is that the first one should always be the slowest, so when my watch beeped at 4:59 I though “oh crap”. But, I pushed on and felt surprisingly good, so I kept increasing my pace. 4:55, 4:54, 4:52, 4:52, 4:46 (!!) and then I’m not exactly sure what my last one was, because for some reason it didn’t load! When I passed the 7km, I stopped my watch and the “lap database full” notification came on, so I’m guessing that’s what happened? I remember telling Felipe I came in at 34:something, and I remember looking down and seeing 4:53 a lot on that last km, so I’m going to go with that. That would put me at 34:14, which sounds about right. Not a perfect descend, but still solid. Am I finally starting to become a runner?